Abeta peptide 1-42, Tau protein and S-100B protein level in cerebrospinal fluid of three patients with primary progressive aphasia.

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a clinical syndrome characterized by a slowly progressive aphasia in the absence of accompanying signs of generalized dementia. While non-fluent PPA tends to progress frontally and is usually linked to frontotemporal degeneration, fluent PPA might be associated with both, frontotemporal degeneration or Alzheimer's disease. Although recent reports suggest that PPA belongs neuropathologically to the group of tauopathias, cerebrospinal fluid analysis has not been established as a means of diagnosis in PPA so far. In this paper we investigated Abeta peptide(1-42) (Abeta(1-42)), Tau protein and S-100B protein level in the cerebrospinal fluid of three patients with PPA. In all patients Tau protein and S-100B level were slightly elevated, however, Abeta(1-42) was found to be in normal range. Thus, our first results point to PPA being neurochemically linked to frontotemporal degeneration. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.